Only 8 out of 265 foreign investments notified under the EU Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) Screening Regulation (“Regulation”) have resulted in mitigation measures, according to the first annual report on the Regulation.
The Regulation was launched in October 2020 with the aim of improving cooperation between Member States and enabling governments to better monitor FDI in strategic industries, for example critical technology, infrastructure, healthcare and infrastructure (see our previous post on the Regulation here). The report estimates that of the cases referred between October 2020 and June 2021, 80% were approved without conditions, while 14% resulted in a request for further information, 3% resulted in mitigation measures being requested and the final 3% are still pending.
Notifications came in large part (90% of cases referred) from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and the majority of investments originated from the US, UK, China, Canada and the UAE. Most referred investments were worth between 10 million euros and 100 million euros each.
The report suggests that the new screening tool is functioning well and that Member States are increasingly introducing their own FDI screening rules. 24 out of the 27 Member States have by now adopted their own FDI regime, amended an existing mechanism or initiated a consultative or legislative process expected to result in the adoption of / amendments to an existing FDI.
For more information, please contact Paul Johnson, Sunny Mann or Johanna Asplund.
